90 NOTES OF A BOTANIST CHAP. 



also made numerous expeditions to the mountains 

 which surround Tarapoto, especially on the north, 

 east, and west, as well as along the banks, up the 

 valleys, and through the gorges of the numerous 

 streams and rivers that issue from them into the 

 pampa of Tarapoto. If the difficulties along the 

 beaten tracks \vere often great, it may be imagined 

 what they were when he had to penetrate these 

 almost untrodden mountains and valleys, densely 

 covered with virgin forest, and for the most .part 

 rarely or never visited by any of the inhabitants oi 

 the surrounding country. Owing to the almost 

 complete absence of any account of these various 

 journeys, I can only give a bare enumeration of 

 them, with a few scattered notes on some of their 

 features where such exist. 



During the first month of his residence (June to 

 July 1855) we have only the note --" Collecting 

 near Tarapoto." This no doubt means within the 

 limits of a day's walk, which would take him over 

 nearly the whole surface of the pampa. From 

 various notes and scattered remarks we learn 

 that although this pampa had been more or less 

 completely cleared of its original virgin forest, and 

 cultivated for more than a hundred years, yet strips 

 and patches of the original vegetation remained 

 along the steep banks of the numerous rivers and a 

 few other precipitous or rocky portions, while con- 

 siderable tracts had reverted to second - growth 

 woods, mostly of shrubs and low trees, thus furnish- 

 ing work for the plant-collector at the flowering 

 seasons of the various kinds of plants. We accord- 

 ingly find a similar note for the month of Sep- 

 tember, then in January 1856, again in July and 



